Population genetic structure, coloration, and morphometrics of yellowhead jawfish Opistognathus aurifrons (Perciformes: Opistognathidae) in the Caribbean region

Abstract

We investigated intraspecific variability in phenotype and population genetic structure of yellowhead jawfish Opistognathus aurifrons from 4 different locations in the Caribbean region: South Florida (USA), Bimini (Bahamas), St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), and Aruba. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) of 9 melanistic traits in the head region resulted in clear separation between Bimini and the other 3 populations. South Florida, St. Thomas, and Aruba slightly overlapped in patterning, with St. Thomas forming the transition between South Florida and Aruba. DFA of 17 morphometric characters elucidated differentiation among the 4 populations with some overlap between populations. Analysis of concatenated cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and mitochondrial control region (mtCR) sequences revealed substantial differences among O. aurifrons populations (pairwise Φ ST = 0.185−0.566), although there was a lack of reciprocal monophyly. Differences in patterning and morphometrics constituted different phenotypes that predominated in each location, with high levels of genetic differentiation between sampled populations. Bimini was most divergent in phenotype, while Aruba was most divergent in genetics. As such, variations in phenotype and genetics are not congruent for O. aurifrons investigated in this study.

High gene flow in reef fishes and its implications for ad-hoc no-take marine reserves

“…In addition, Chrysoblephus laticeps showed haplotype diversity of 1 for all sites studied, but with overall haplotype diversity not equal to 1 (Teske et al 2010), and Naso vlamingii was observed to have haplotype diversity of 1 even with a large sample size (n ¼ 113) (Klanten et al 2007). Moreover, equal number of samples and haplotypes was also observed in Opistognathus aurifrons using concatenated sequence of mtDNA CR and cytochrome oxidase I (Ho et al 2012). These suggest that the diversity represented by the samples in our study might not be low, but reflects the high genetic diversity typical of many marine fishes (Grant and Bowen 1998).…”

Review of Brazilian jawfishes of the genus Opistognathus with descriptions of two new species (Teleostei, Opistognathidae)

“…Previous studies of several populations of Caribbean O.aurifrons based on morphology (Böhlke and Thomas 1961) and genetics (Ho et al 2012) indicated that despite substantial variation in color pattern within and between populations, only a single species should be recognized. Several other western Atlantic reef fishes, especially small, cryptobenthic fishes like gobies and blennioids, show similar patterns where there is substantial mitochondrial divergence without detectable phenotypic differences (Victor et al 2015; Victor 2015).…”

Morphological Differentiation in the Damselfish Abudefduf saxatilis Along the Mexican Atlantic Coast is Associated with Environmental Factors and High Connectivity

“…Frédérich et al 2012), mainly focusing on the association between coloration polymorphism and genetic differentiation (Schultz et al 2007). While some of these studies have found geographic concordance between morphologic and genetic data (Drew et al 2010) others have uncovered discordance between the measured morphological and genetic traits (Ho et al 2012). Similarly, several investigations on marine fishes have assessed the relationships between morphology and environmental factors; however, studies examining the relative contribution of environmental and genetic variation on morphology across natural populations are scarce (but see Marcil et al 2006;Costa et al 2010), and to our knowledge are lacking for coral reef fishes.…”